First step was groupage boxes from Hamburg
A GROUP of local forwarders has banded together to use its collective muscle to secure volume discounts with carriers, container packing stations, trucking companies, and the like to reduce overall costs.
Peter Bettac, m.d. of Birkart Globistics, which forms part of the grouping, points out that it's not a new concept, but one that requires enormous trust among the partners.
"Everyone is an individual, but we are using our collective buying power to the benefit of customers".
Operating as "Group 99", the first step has been groupage containers moving from Hamburg to South Africa.
"But we've taken that one step further and identified 12 other destinations that could benefit from volume discounts. And once these have been implemented we will look into export groupages," Bettac told FTW. Other areas of co-operation are likely to follow in the fields of legal representation, IT (information technology) and risk management.
Apart from Birkart Globistics, the following companies are partners in the cluster: Damco Maritime, Hartrodt SA, Heneways Freight Services, Micor Shipping, MSAS, SAEL and Waco Logistics.
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